I’ve been promising this post for a while now… time to stop procrastinating about it!

It’s all about Miss America’s Outstanding Teen!!!!

For those of you who don’t know… Miss America only recently developed a ‘teen division’ the way Miss USA has Miss Teen USA (what? You mean Miss America and Miss USA aren’t the same thing?). Please indulge my quick rabbit trail for those of you who have only started following along this year… it’s certainly an appropriate question that deserves a solid answer.

Miss America was started in 1921 in Atlantic City. It was the finest pageant for decades – until Miss USA began because of an argument over Swimsuits. Yes – Swimsuits (long story – google it if you want the full scoop). In the ’70’s the Miss USA pageant began, and it had all the same ‘categories’ you might expect in a pageant competition – except Talent. You do not have to perform any sort of Talent at Miss USA – whereas with Miss America, Talent counts for 35% of your total score (the highest of any category). Miss USA is also the organization famous for Donald Trump, partying all night at the bars in New York, girls kissing girls, and the Perez Hilton/Miss California/Gay Marriage nightmare. None of those events are associated with Miss America – all Miss USA. Now, back to my original post…

Miss America was ‘loosely affiliated’ with America’s Junior Miss – a Teen program for High School Seniors. However, there wasn’t ever any official connection between the two programs (p.s. Diane Sawyer won America’s Junior Miss way back in the day). Then, in 2005, Miss America created what is known as MAOT or Miss America’s Outstanding Teen. You must be between the ages of 13-17 and compete in the same categories as Miss America, Talent, Evening Wear, Interview and Swimsuit. The current MAOT is from Oklahoma – and was crowned at the age of 16!!!

WHY IS THIS WORTH AN ENTIRE POST???

Well – this is why…

Each of these girls represented their state as at MAOT in their younger years – and now, they’re competing for the title of Miss America!!! From left to right, Miss Vermont, Miss California, Miss New Mexico and Miss Hawaii. For the record – Miss California was the 1st runner up at MAOT back in 2005 🙂

There you have it! I’d keep my eye on Hawaii and California – they know what they’re doing and have been playing this game for a while…

Thanks for your patience! Whoooo Hoooooo for things you never knew before!!! 🙂

Now it’s time to do another round of picks for tonight’s (Wednesday) Preliminary Winners… I’ve been doing my research and I must tell you, every once in a while, you come across an interesting situation in regards to prelims… Tonight is one such night. Let me explain…

Last night, the cutest clogging/tap dancer you ever stinkin’ saw was given a prelim award. As luck would have it – there are 3, count ’em THREE MORE tap dancers competing TONIGHT in talent. More than that – there are an additional 3, count ’em again, THREE MORE dancers who aren’t Tap Dancers competing tonight (Jazz Dance, Ballet and Gymnastics Dance). Anyone see where I’m going??? Chances are, you aren’t going to award two dancers, two nights in a row — so I’m guessing tonight’s winner is going to be a vocalist. Makes my life a little easier – but only if the theory holds true!

So – here are tonight’s picks for you!

Swimsuit = Kentucky, Colorado, New Jersey and Alabama. These ladies are all gorgeous – and all brunettes. Three of the 4 won prelim swimsuit at their state pageants – and any of them could take the win tonight. Which brings me to something I like to remind everyone about the Swimsuit competition… sometimes, the girl who wins Swimsuit really is the girl who looks the best in her swimsuit. However, sometimes, the girl who wins swimsuit is the girl who looks really good in a swimsuit – but also happens to be one of the judges favorites from the private interview. How do you know the difference? You don’t, unfortunately. At least not until you see the Top 5… Ok – back to picks for tonight…

Talent = Indiana, Utah, Idaho and Hawaii. Yes – some of you think I’ve lost it — but this is the ‘lacking talent’ night in my opinion… so I’m branching out into some folks who are music majors in school and should at least be able to hit a note or two. Almost picking Rhode Island (another WHAT? state)… but I won’t.

Otherwise – as promised, I’m going to put up one more post tonight about Miss America’s Outstanding Teen… stay tuned for such!

And here’s another shot of the judges from today’s press conference… If you think this crowd is going to crown a perky blond, think again!

Geez – makes me wonder whose funeral they’re going to! HA!

Adios!

crl

YAY FOR TUESDAY WINNERS!!!! I hardly ever sleep the night after the first round of Preliminary Winners – because I’m SO EXCITED to see who our Winners are on Wednesday morning!!! I can just imagine how the girls feel – as they FINALLY got the chance to be on stage after hours and hours of rehearsals and events in Vegas over the past week!

So – no more waiting… Let’s get to it!

Tuesday Winners Include: Miss Hawaii in Swimsuit (a correct pick!)

What a Body! Miss Hawaii was named Hawaii’s Outstanding Teen in 2005 (I keep telling you I’m going to get to the whole ‘Outstanding Teen’ thing for those of you who don’t know what that means… PROMISE I’ll get a post up about that TODAY!) and looks very grown-up now! Yay for Correct Pick #1!!!

And For Talent – our Winner is… Miss North Carolina (an incorrect pick) But check out this video from Miss North Carolina’s Rehearsal… SUPER, SUPER CUTE!!!

I have this ‘Love-Hate’ relationship with North Carolina… I’ve had year after year where I never see them coming and all of a sudden, they make the Top 5 and I didn’t even realize the girl was on stage! Then, I remind myself of my poor record when it comes to the lovely ladies from NC, and I choose them on purpose so I’m not left in the cold. That’s usually the year when they don’t make the Top 15 at all!?! However – This year, this girl is DEFINITELY in my Top 15! Freaking Adorable!

Here’s a photo of the 2 of them together – after receiving their awards!

If you’re bored today and want to check out some of your potential picks… go to this YouTube Link and you can see several of the contestants talent rehearsals. Remember, Talent counts for 35% of each contestants preliminary score… and this is just about the best use of YouTube I could ever imagine! 🙂

Tuesday Talent Rehearsals

Alright! My next task is to pick Preliminary Winners for tonight — which won’t be easy, because I’m already 50/50! Need to bring my average up quickly in case we have another ‘Vermont Episode’ in the near future (please see post from Day 6 2009 for further explanation of the ‘Vermont Episode’).

OH! And Miss America was over-loaded with people trying to stream the preliminaries last night… last word was, they said they’d record it and put it back up for people to view at their convenience, rather than trying to watch it live. We’ll see how it all goes tonight…

Finally – BIG THANKS to all of you who tell me you’re “Following” this blog, but don’t quite know how to officially “Follow” me. 🙂 If you’d like to ‘follow’, go to the very top Left Hand side of the page and click ‘follow’… then follow the instructions. You may have to become a subscriber of “Blogger” – but let me assure you, seeing my Neurosis this Up-Close-And-Personal, is Totally Worth It!! 🙂

Stay Tuned for my next set of picks!!! And don’t forget to start making your own lists for the Big Night on SATURDAY!!!

crl

Here’s a link that even the men will like!

Check this link

for photos of the Miss America States currently representing the NFL playoff Football teams! Super Cute — except that Miss Kansas and the Chiefs aren’t represented 🙁

Photos by Tom Donahue of DonahuePhotography.com

It’s Here! It’s Here! It’s Finally HERE!!!!!

The first night of on-stage Preliminary Competition for Miss America 2011 starts TONIGHT!!! I’ve been studying the individual groups as listed below (Mu, Alpha, Sigma) and it’s my job to narrow the field down to 4 possible winners out of 13 girls competing. I’ll do this today, tomorrow and Thursday – and while I don’t necessarily ‘win’ anything by doing it, it helps me get into the Judges heads to see if we’re on the same page or not. Each day, I’ll offer my picks for the winners in both Swimsuit and Talent (they don’t announce a winner for Evening Wear or the On-Stage Question)… and I usually have a bit of commentary associated to back up my picks. Typically, I get 4 out of 6 winners correct over the course of the week. A good year would be 5 out of 6 (which is what I’m shooting for this year), a ‘less than average’ year is 3 out of 6 (although, I’m thinking of asking the officials to place an asterisk next to the year Miss Vermont won Talent) and we’ll all know I have completely fallen off my rocker if I only get 2 out of 6 correct (I mean, almost anyone can do that!).

So! Without further adieu, here are my picks for TUESDAY’S PRELIMINARIES:

Swimsuit = Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, and DC. Florida is a GORGEOUS blond and all of 5’11!!! If they let her wear her black, silver-studded, over-the-knee leather boots during the swimsuit competition, i think she would (she can be seen in several photos with them on this past week!). Also, Illinois and DC won swimsuit at their state competition – and Hawaii is a former Miss America Outstanding Teen for Hawaii (more on that later).

Talent = WOW! This is a PACKED group for Talent — Lots of girls won Talent at their states from this night! I could miss this one – but hopefully not!

Talent Picks = Pennsylvania, California, Texas, Tennessee. Seriously – this one was HARD! These are all strong pageant states – and I’m guessing it’s going to be close! Penn plays the Electric Fiddle, the others are vocalists. California made it to the Top 36 at American Idol (just missed going to Hollywood) and she was 1st Runner up at the Miss American Outstanding Teen national competition in 2005. The vocalist judge on the panel is a country music singer – so, I’m not sure ‘classical vocalists’ are going to win any preliminaries this year… we’ll see. Georgia could sneak out and win tonight – but I’m sticking with my original 4 states.

OK! And – this just in! The Prelims will be streamed on the web tonight – starting at 8pm Pacific! Yay for Technology!!!

Finally – as soon as I get the chance, I’ll put together a form for our contest this year… I’m giving away a Vera Wang “Princess” Perfume gift pack to the person who scores the most points by choosing the most finalists correctly! You don’t wanna miss out!

OH! And I’m anxiously waiting until Thursday morning when I’ll get to fly to Vegas to see it all in person!!! Honestly – I’m having a hard time getting my rest because… “I’m too excited to sleep!!!” 🙂

Must Press On! Results from my picks will be available on Miss America’s Facebook page around 11:30 tonight! Whoooooooooooooooooooo Hoooooooooooooooooooooooo!!! 🙂

crl